Santana IV LP

[Rust]

So I picked up the new Santana IV LP today hoping I wouldn't be too disappointed and all things considered I'm not. The reconstituted band is as much of the sort of original lineup as possible and they can still play.

The album is not as good as the original Santana or especially the follow up Abraxas. You only get lightning in a bottle so very rarely. But it is a good album with a couple of standout cuts such as Suenos and Blues Magic which really bring back some of what once was.

Recommended? In this day and age, hell yes.

As to the "purity" of the recording chain, no idea. But hey, it's the best Santana that's come along in years.

[Bill Hart]

The self-titled and Caravanserai on the original KC prefixed Columbia label are very good sounding records and can be found cheaply. What a great player and band back in the day. I gather than the Supernatural album, which seems to fetch some money these days, is not well mastered. Carlos used to do business with Rudy on 48th Street, who would occasionally offer one of his guitars for sale. They were pretty nice vintage fenders~ big money, but for collector level guitars, not obscenely priced. Sadly, Rudy closed shop and music row is no longer.

[Rust]

If you can find an LP of Supernatural it is better than any digital copy. The digital copies were so compressed into 0 dB that the signal is mainly square waves. Fortunately those square waves can't be cut into vinyl, attempting to do so will probably fry the cutter head.

[Bill Hart]

If you can find an LP of Supernatural it is better than any digital copy. The digital copies were so compressed into 0 dB that the signal is mainly square waves. Fortunately those square waves can't be cut into vinyl, attempting to do so will probably fry the cutter head.

So, theoretically, if that were recorded natively to digital, one could go back to the multitracks or find some stage of the recording before all the compression was added and create a new, less compressed mix to cut a better sounding record? They wouldn't have added all that compression in during the initial recording stage(s), right? But at the mix down stage, I assume?

[ack]

I didn't care for IV, which also sounds aweful; a big let down for me, and I didn't even care to play the second LP

[Rust]

So, theoretically, if that were recorded natively to digital, one could go back to the multitracks or find some stage of the recording before all the compression was added and create a new, less compressed mix to cut a better sounding record? They wouldn't have added all that compression in during the initial recording stage(s), right? But at the mix down stage, I assume?

I can't speak for all recordings, but normally all the compression and normalization happens as the last step in production prior to release. So it is likely that further up the chain in the multi-tracks they were not riding hard on or past 0dB, and that if the powers that be wanted to, they could have released better mixes.

[Rust]

I didn't care for IV, which also sounds aweful; a big let down for me, and I didn't even care to play the second LP

Different strokes and all. I was just happy that there were four good cuts musically, and was less interested in the "absolute sound". I tend to listen through the sound to the music. Come to think of it, the cuts I liked were on the second LP.

[cpp]

I purchased the album, but found it was nice to have some of the old group adding their experience to the album but it just didn't equal what I felt when I listened to the 1970 Abraxas or the 1969 Santana album. On this album Santana and Schon both performed at a much higher level but some songs were as one review I read noted " little too overstuffed, with a tendency to occasionally wander into the realm of the self-indulgent " example is “Forgiveness”.I wasn't concentrating on compression or the digital items of its production, I concentrated on the music and playing of the members.